If you love to drink coffee or tea, you may have noticed that it tends to stain your teeth. There are many whitening methods out there to help, but a recent study has shown that adding milk to your tea may help to avoid tooth stains.

The study, which appeared in the International Journal of Dental Hygiene, states that the way tea is processed is what leads to tooth stains. But the study also showed that milk can lower its power to discolor teeth. It may be because of the casein that is in the milk binding with the tannins in the tea which prevents the teeth from being stained.

The study was done using extracted human teeth. Some of the teeth were placed in a solution of tea while others were placed in tea mixed with milk. The teeth were left for 24 hours and the color of the teeth was recorded before and after. Results of the teeth in the tea mixed with milk showed less stains.